Beyond Good & Evil: Beginnings
by SPG inc
Summary: The beginning of a BG&E novelisation.
1. Chapter 1

_**The beginning of a novelisation of the game 'Beyond Good & Evil'. Slightly reedited since my first attempt.**_

A timeline of sentient-kind

8631 AD- First extraterrestrial colony founded. Alien life is discovered in the form of animals, plants and diseases. New diseases are prevented from becoming epidemic by quarantine procedures and animals and plants are introduced to new worlds through controlled terraforming programs. Human kind enters the Age of Exploration. No intelligent life is encountered throughout the galaxy.

12,212 EX- Planet Earth dies. Its resources stripped and its atmosphere heavily polluted, the world becomes uninhabitable. The human race immigrates to space colonies to survive. Tensions quickly rise between rival governments and corporations who compete for limited resources, and between opposing religious movements. Galactic wide wars break out.

12,286 EX- Warring factions agree to a truce. Many of Planet Earth's original animal species begin evolving into intelligent life forms. The sentient-kind senate is established to encompass both human and Animal kind. Entire planets are settled and cities built in the name of the sentient-kind confederation, providing vast resources. Peace is restored and sentient-kind enters the Age of Enlightenment. A seventh of the galaxy has now been officially mapped.

2415 PS- In the Age of Prosperity, intelligent alien life is discovered. The DomZ species appears from the unmapped areas of the galaxy and aggressively capture countless worlds within a single year. Sentient-kind's varied military forces are unable to repel the invasion as the DomZ armada spreads across the galaxy. A new political party known as the Alpha Section rises. Mustering a private army, the Alpha Section drives back DomZ invasions on several worlds, gaining popularity in the public eye. The Alpha Section votes to assume control of the senate and declare a state of martial law in order to defeat the DomZ forces. Major political opposition stall their attempts, and the Alpha Section's campaign is halted, allowing several worlds to fall to the DomZ.

Five out of the nine systems of the sentient-kind confederation have been completely conquered. The DomZ now move to system four.

X-X X-X X-X X-X X-X X-X X-X X-X X-X X-X X-X X-X X-X X-X X-X X-X X-X X-X X-X X-X X-X

Beyond Good & Evil: Beginnings

2435 PS: System 4- Planet Hillys

"**The war has arrived at the gates of Hillys!"** the bald news reporter announced dramatically. His rust red shades and neatly trimmed chin hair and triangular soul patch beard screamed of an attempt to seem cool but didn't carry very well, even with the digital enhancement from the monitor.

"**This peaceful mining planet in system four is now completely encircled by the DomZ armada. General Kehck, supreme commander of the Alpha forces stationed on Hillys, would like to address a final message to the population."**

The general's message proceeded to call on the Hillyans to remain faithful in the Alpha Section's effort to fight off the DomZ and to beware the terrorist group known as IRIS who seemed to be working in sympathy with the invaders. Kip watched the bulletin upside down as he lay on the sofa. The general's speech seemed encouraging, but he wasn't sure. Jade had once said he shouldn't pay attention to everything he heard on TV, while Uncle Pey'j claimed the Alpha Section was bad news altogether. But in that case what did the report mean? Was there something else going on that wasn't being reported? Why would the general and the reporter be lying? He thought maybe he should ask someone about it, but he didn't know where Pey'j was, and Jade was still outside praying.

To be exact, the girl was perched on a cliff top ledge in the shade of a freshly blossomed wisteria tree. Even at sundown the air was thick and humid, but Jade's green and aqua pants, green jacket and midriff baring white vest were airy and kept her cool. The young woman's green eyes were closed in concentration as she moved her hands in the repetitive, yoga like motions over her head and then down into her lap again. The ritual of higher conscious meditation brought overwhelming serenity to the girl's strong face that was marred by stress lines along her brow and lipstick the same colour as her name. The only accessories she carried was her S.A.C, held in place by a strap going across her body, and a green head band that held up her shortened hair which was the perfect black of the void of space.

To Jade's left sat the twelve year old goat-humanoid Fehn, trying to mimic the girl's exercise. She usually preferred solitude when meditating, but she couldn't bring herself to turn away the child's pleading eyes. If nothing else she'd be glad to introduce Fehn to the higher conscious meditation technique. The boy was finding it harder than the other orphans to cope with the loss of his parents, kidnapped during the more recent DomZ raids, and Jade had quickly decided that a good meditative trance to calm his agitated body and mind was just what he needed.

Jade found herself drawn from her mental seclusion by a pang of foreboding. Nothing had happened yet, but she trusted the effects that higher conscious meditation had on the mind, and as always her enhanced senses didn't lie. She opened her eyes just in time to catch a glimpse of the sunset before the heavens were stained toxic green as a hurricane like vortex opened in the atmosphere, the sonic boom knocking graceful seagulls from flight as it lashed through the air.

"They're coming!" Jade exclaimed, alert but not panicked. "Quick, Fehn- jump up!" she indicated her back as she moved into a crouched position. The child bounded from where he was seated and onto Jade. She managed his weight with ease and took off back toward the lighthouse, piggybacking Fehn all the way. As they ran she could hear the boy's breath growing into rapid gasps of fear. Jade wanted to take a moment to comfort Fehn, but there were only seconds to go and she couldn't afford to stop. Under the circumstances Fehn's safety, not comfort, was her first priority.

Following the sharp crack of noise from the sky, a terrible silence had fallen over the local area, even muting the sound of the ocean waves. Quite literally the calm before the storm. The nearby city was the main target of the DomZ aggression, but the small island which Jade and Fehn were on was no safe haven.

Jade's own fear threatened to bubble from her stomach and overspill into the rest of her body, but she didn't allow it to. Instead she compressed it, changed it, made it work for her. She focused her fear and turned it into energy, using it to make her run faster rather than to dull her senses. Another trick she learned from higher conscious meditation.

Reaching the base of the lighthouse she said "Go tell Pey'j; I'll take care of the shield," as she stopped to allow Fehn to leap from her back. The boy hit the ground running and disappeared into the lighthouse while Jade turned to the arch shaped console. She hit the button with its glowing palm print light, and quietly whispered encouragement as the device warmed up.

Atop the lighthouse, the lights set in the shield reflector than ringed the lantern room ignited as the disc expanded outward in segments. The domed roof of the lantern room extended upwards and channelled energy down into the reflector. The panels redirected the energy, and an iridescent barrier of kinetic force enveloped the lighthouse and the knobbly island it was built on.

"**Shield activated,"** droned a mechanical voice.

And not a moment too soon.

Above the city, similar shields had umbrellaed into place, defending key positions. Incandescent flares were already burning where the opening shots from the DomZ fleet in orbit were obliterated against the energy fields. As always, the first attacks that came down in an unsteady trickle grew quickly into a hail of emerald green DomZ meteors that hammered against the surface of Hillys, consuming Galapagos City in light as the DomZ bombardment met the defensive barriers. Somewhere on the edge of town there was a brilliant flash as a badly maintained shield overloaded and burnt out, leaving those under its guard to the mercy of the storm.

Space rocks began falling outside the confines of the city limits, diving into the ocean and crashing into more shields or the occasional uninhabited island, moving steadily towards the lighthouse.

"**Shield disabled."**

"WHAT! ?" Jade exclaimed in horror as the energy barrier over the lighthouse flickered out and the shield system retracted back into the tower from whence it came. "No, no!"

As though in response to the girl, an automated female voice hummed from the shield console.

"**Your Optima account is three-hundred and fifty credits short. Your electrical supply has just been blocked."**

"You've got to be joking!" Jade pleaded with the machine as she slapped at the activation button.

"**Thank you for understanding," **it replied flippantly.

Jade looked up as she racked her brains urgently for a solution to the problem. Straight above her head, a particularly fiery boulder was plummeting towards the spot where she was standing.

Only the reflexes honed over many years saved Jade. She flung herself aside as the rock hit the earth and shattered explosively. Jade rolled to her feet and looked up as another DomZ asteroid clipped the edge of the lighthouse. Stone fragments and burning lengths of timber fell from the tower of her lifelong home, adding more fuel to the already heavy rain that splattered destructively over her home island. Another green glowing boulder hurtled down towards Jade's position. She executed a back flip, rebounding off of her hands and back onto her feet as the rock plunged into the earth with another deafening crash. Jade gasped breathlessly but remained focused as she watched for further threats to her life.

"Jade!" several young voices began crying out over the din of impacts. The girl looked for the source of the new noise, and spotted it in the funnelled entrance to the lighthouse. The orphans in Jade's care had gathered just outside the doorway, calling for her to get to safety.

Jade fumed at the kid's recklessness. She screamed "Get back inside and-"

Jade's meditation enhanced senses twitched.

She looked up, and above her a lone asteroid was coming down towards the island. This one was different- bigger, with no fire clinging to it and glowing a green stronger than any she had seen so far.

There was no time for another warning.

The DomZ projectile struck the earth in front of the lighthouse, and in place of an explosion was terrible tremble as the boulder jerked sharply, the ground caving in under its weight.

With fearful yells that made Jade's heart clench, she caught sight of all six of her orphans falling into the crater. She didn't make the fatal mistake of rushing to their aid. She knew what was happening.

Like demons from hell, three poison coloured objects floated out of the glowing mouth of the pit. They were triangular shaped, the corners on top protruding above the rest of each mass like sharp shoulder bones, the lower ends tapering into long, segmented tails. Six ribcage blades held a man-sized, transparent purple crystal in the central section of each object. Muffled screams and pleas came from within the crystals. The one at the fore of the trio held Fehn, trapped and struggling frantically in his diamond prison. Kip and Pablo occupied the other two.

The screams for help suddenly stopped. All three of the kids simultaneously froze, then as one fell limp in their confinement, though their bodies remained somehow upright and rigid. Dead faces vanished in green lights that made it difficult for Jade to look at them without hurting her eyes. She clenched her jaw, not allowing her emotions any chance to overwhelm her when she needed to stay focused- she'd need to give it everything she had if she was to free the orphans.

The pointed corners of each object levered up as they stretched out spindly appendages. Three spiked digits at the end of each limb reached out to seize the lip of the hole they'd emerged from.

Jade glared at the entities as they pulled themselves onto solid ground, tails coiling beneath each one to take their weight. These _things_ were the cause of the destruction wrought on both Hillys and numerous other worlds. They were the enemy of sentient-kind and everything it stood for.

Sarcophagus domzii- the mainstream breed of the DomZ species. These _things_ were the DomZ themselves.


	2. Chapter 2

Jade dug into her thoughts for the years of higher conscious meditation she'd undertaken. Most of the teachings were aimed at relaxation and encouraged its followers to embrace and confront their emotional responses, but there were also lessons for quelling emotions and allowing logic and instinct to guide a disciple's actions when need called for it. Jade directed her thoughts in the way her teachings had instructed and felt energy and strength flowing through her to wash away her fear and concern.

She felt herself become ready for combat

Jade snatched a long wooden stick from the ground, one end a burning, spitting ember. The girl rushed the DomZ holding Fehn, braced the stick as an extension of her elbow, and thrashed at the mobile coffin. It took two blows before slithering away. Jade meant to follow, but in those few seconds the other two DomZ had flanked her. She turned to the one on her left, knocking its reaching arms aside with a right and left swing of her makeshift weapon. Rather than make the mistake of going for a killing blow and leaving her back exposed a second too long, she back flipped and felt the satisfying thud of her navy blue sneakers against the DomZ coming at her from the right.

The first DomZ moved in. It swung its claws in a move that would have gutted Jade without trouble, but the girl planted the staff into the ground to take the force of the blow. The overly long forearm bounced off the wooden pole, fortunately not snapping it. Jade uprooted her weapon and speared the DomZ with it, but the alien held its ground, and the fiery tip of Jade's staff failed to have any effect on the bony structure.

The tail of the DomZ holding Fehn unexpectedly lashed out over its own head. It stung the side of Jade's skull and she stumbled back. The DomZ struck again with a triple clawed hand. Jade recovered fast and dived forward. The subsequent roll took her under the DomZ's outstretched arm. She came to her feet with athletic grace behind her adversary and used the opportunity to stamp on the now lowered tail. Though the DomZ had no visible mouth, it roared angrily as the brittle spine snapped in half. With a rush of excitement as she spotted an opportunity, Jade reached up and grabbed hold of the large shoulders. She tensed at the cold, hard texture but held on nonetheless. Without its tail the DomZ was easy to shunt into its fellow coming from the right. Jade hoisted herself up with the wounded alien's shoulder and threw her weight into a kick against the DomZ on her left. The monster shrugged back, and Jade followed up with a powerful over head swing of her staff.

Jade's blow slammed onto the purple crystal. The glassy substance fragmented and the entire DomZ was blown apart by the force of its own death, sending shards of rock hard flesh everywhere. Despite wincing as a particularly big chunk opened her cheek, Jade saw Kip fall from the centre of the destroyed alien, apparently shaken but otherwise unharmed.

"I've got this handled! Get yourself to safety!" Jade instructed as she distracted another invader with a flurry of wild kicks and blows. Kip followed her command and vanished behind the nearby rocks. The DomZ bombardment had stopped falling on the island after the giant meteor had taken the kids, so there was no danger of him being crushed.

The DomZ Jade was now fighting made another swing with its blade fingers. Jade held her weapon aloft and jumped inside the creature's guard, plunging the staff into it. The purple lens shattered as though she were smashing a mirror, and Pablo escaped from his prison, guided in the direction of safety by a careful yet firm shove from Jade.

The girl searched for the DomZ holding Fehn, but the thing had taken its severed tail and had escaped to the safety of the pit, hiding behind the arrival of three more DomZ. Jade began to worry, knowing that the sarcophagus domzii would leach at Fehn's life-force to repair its injures as well as sustain its own existence. Her meditative calmness began to falter as she realised time was running out before the bonding process between the DomZ and their victims became irreversible. If Fehn and the others weren't rescued before time ran out...

Two more bony monsters began crawling over the walls jutting from the lighthouse entrance, while a third approached Jade directly. The girl frowned as the monsters move with uncanny dexterity over the stonework. She'd soon be surrounded.

Jade prepared herself mentally. She closed her eyes and used her meditation skills to look deep inside herself, coming in contact with her centre quickly. Jade's mind reached out in a state of thought deeper than was natural for a human to endure. She sucked in a breath, feeling like she was breathing in the whole world, smelling and tasting its essence, feeling the wrongness of the DomZ presence. The sounds of the real world faded to be replaced by the ominous echo of Jade's own psyche. The noise was something akin to the sound of a choir chorus.

Jade opened her eyes. The DomZ attacking her from ahead moved as if underwater, one arm sloshing forward in a decapitating strike. Jade caught the arm with her stick in plenty of time, the impact nothing but a gentle ripple. Seeing the world move as though the seconds had decreased in value made her dizzy, but the young woman maintained her concentration, allowing her reactions to continue working at an impossibly fast rate.

Jade felt the other two DomZ coming up behind her as one. Rapidly deciding on a course of action, Jade gave it all she could as she hacked, slashed, stabbed and kicked her enemies back, rebounding between all three DomZ at once. They were swiftly destroyed.

"Stay hidden kids!" Jade ordered as another three of her young charges were saved from a terrible fate. Her mouth went dry and she staggered a little, faint as a seasick feeling beginning to assail her. She couldn't take much more of her slow moving perception of the world.

Jade faced the last DomZ. It had recovered from the injuries she'd dealt it, its tail reattached and the cracks in the purple crystal non-existent. The green light emanating from Fehn's head had dimmed considerably, and the shell that held him was losing its transparency. Jade's hands tightened their grip on her staff and she breathed deeply to try and relax the knots in her stomach. Once the crystal was no longer see-through, Fehn would be permanently bound to the DomZ until it died, taking the child's life with it.

Filled with concern for Fehn's wellbeing, a sliver of emotion penetrated the layer of focus that had allowed Jade to best five DomZ with minimal difficulty. Her concentration shattered, and her perception returned to a normal pace. In desperation she ran at the monster with a careless spin of her stick. It connecting with the alien's shoulder and didn't even leave a scratch. The DomZ lashed out and pierced Jade's hip and side with a pair of deadly fingers.

Jade froze in a moment of incomprehension, before screaming in pain and rage at the top of her lungs. She tumbled away, and the bone claws sucked out of the wounds, sending blood spurting onto the virile grass.

Jade clawed at the flesh near the wounds, unwilling to touch them directly, or even to look at them as she crushed her eyes shut. Moving was agony, but so was staying still. Too distracted to meditate the pain into perspective, Jade bared her teeth as she wished the hurt away. Strangely enough, the only thing she could think of at that moment was the need to resist swearing while the kids were in earshot.

The DomZ closed in on the target, making to kill the girl. Forcing the pain aside, she rolled backwards and out of the monster's reach.

There was no time for moving into a higher state of mind; Jade had to end it then and there. She braced herself and watched the DomZ draw closer. She studied the alien carefully. The monster's left shoulder shifted a little. Jade readied herself, and then sprang away as the corresponding arm snaked out to gouge another wound in her body. She landed on the DomZ's right and prepared to attack. Compared to her meditation induced state, Jade's mind felt muffled, as though cotton wool had been shoved in her nose and ears and the sun had dimmed. The effects of higher conscious meditation usually took a few minutes to wear off completely, but Jade clearly didn't have that luxury.

She threw a sideways swing at the DomZ. It deflected the strike and tried to backhand Jade. She jerked her staff up and back with a one handed grip, knocking the spiked limb aside. With the arm out of the way, the DomZ was exposed to an assault. Jade took hold of her stick with two hands and swung it into her foe.

The DomZ recoiled.

Not giving it a chance to recover, Jade pirouetted and struck the DomZ again.

Then again. And again.

Jade kept up the attack, moving closer with each spin to keep the retreating DomZ in range. The monster reached out to grab at the nearby wall so it could crawl to safety. Jade refused to let it go, and after her next swing she jumped, allowing momentum to lift her body into the air so that she could kick the DomZ with each foot, one after the other. She battered the monster in this way then fell back to the ground, and as she did used the natural pull of gravity to put some extra weight behind her makeshift club as she swung it down with one hand.

The final DomZ broke, littering the area with its dry entrails. Fehn dropped to the ground as he was released from his prison. Jade was at his side in a heartbeat.

He was still alive.

Jade sighed in relief. By the look of it, the boy had no injuries- just the usual fatigue associated with anyone who'd narrowly escaped consumption by a DomZ creature. He was dizzy and confused, trying to speak but only managing to bleat out incomprehensible gibberish.

"Kip, Pablo- get over here and help," Jade instructed. As one, all five of the kids rushed over. Yoa and Zaza converged on Jade herself, pawing at her and muttering timidly about her wounds, but Jade reassured them that she was alright and ushered them over to the others who were with Fehn.

Satisfied that the orphans were alright, Jade turned to confront the pit. It was still alight with DomZ influence, but without anybody to become the heart of another sarcophagus domzii, it seemed to be inactive. Jade crept over to the hole to take a closer look. She cast another glance back at the kids who were now watching her with foreboding expressions.

Jade craned her head forward to get a better view as she slowed just before reaching the edge of the crater. She couldn't see anything except green light, but there was definitely something there; she could hear it.

"JADE!"

The screams from the orphans came too late. Something burst from the soil under Jade's feet- several things, snaking up around her- tentacles, rock hard yet flexible.

DomZ flesh.

By the time Jade had even thought of jumping aside, the dark green appendages had scooped her up and clamped themselves over the lower half of her body. The stick was swept from her grasp and her arms were pinned to her sides as the muscular lengths closed over her abdomen.

Sealing together, the tentacles now became a single limb with Jade tight in its grip. It thrashed about, waving the captive girl like a trophy, before the whole thing retracted.

The tentacle sunk down into the earth, taking Jade with it.


	3. Chapter 3

The descent was smooth and mechanical, as though the apprehension was being carried out by a drone rather than a living creature. The tentacle's hold was equally robotic, as strong and as cold as iron. Jade shuddered as she tried to find feeling in her numb legs.

Down she went.

The walls throbbed with DomZ presence, tendrils of ribbed bone clutching every surface. Jade choked on stale air, striving to breath as the tentacle squeezed her burning lungs.

The DomZ limb finally stopped moving just as it reached the bottom of the crater. Its base was surrounded by a ring of upturned claws that caged both the appendage and its captive. Jade jerked her shoulders urgently, to no avail.

A whisper echoed round the chamber.

Jade looked up. In spite of the green glow, the pit was still doused in shadows. She thought she could see something moving ahead of her, but the features were obscured by the darkness.

Then an orb of illumination winked into life at head height with Jade, still held two metres off the ground. She observed it, a plethora of suggestions as to what it was running through her head- the sun, a floodlight, the way to the afterlife; all absurd. She just wanted to believe that it was anything except what it must be.

The light increased in intensity, sweeping back the shadows and unveiling itself.

Jade's mouth fell open of its own accord.

It was a DomZ. But not like the sarcophagus domzii. This was a superior breed- a Soul Eater DomZ.

Its body was a thicker, longer version of the thing that held Jade tight in its grasp. The ball of green light was set in the tip of the length, surrounded by a formless circle of DomZ flesh. From the sides of this 'head', pale and featureless arms waved aimlessly, probing Jade's face as the spidery shape moved towards her.

Jade stared blindly, mouth agape, so frozen that she didn't even flinch at the skeletal touch against her cheek. She'd heard about this sort of monster in news reports but had never even dreamt she might see one. There were few who had and had lived to tell the tale. It was all she could do to return the DomZ's shining gaze.

'_**Khauhl oempakanh ,'**_ the creature's deep, guttural moans bounced off every surface of the crater. Jade winced at the noise.

'_**Khauhl oempakanh ,'**_

Jade squirmed as the sound bit into her head; an awful chorus of growls that made her stomach turn. She'd never heard anything like it. The noise resonated at just the right frequency to hurt her ears, and each note took a full ten seconds to dissipate as it rebounded from wall to wall.

"_**Shauni."**_

The word clicked with Jade. She sensed something from that particular sound.

"_**Shauni,"**_ it moved closer, as though with insistency.

With a sudden shock, Jade realised that this thing- this DomZ thing, was speaking to her!

It was _calling_ her Shauni!

There was no equivalent of a facial expression to be seen, and the words were incomprehensible, assuming that they were words at all. Nevertheless, somehow Jade had the strangest feeling that some sort of connection was forming between her and the monster. Already she was certain that the thing wasn't just staring at her; it was examining her, like a scientist would marvel at an insect under a microscope. It was as though the creature's thoughts were reaching into her mind.

"_**Shauni Ourhbaïths mètheud."**_

Jade became a little dizzy and blinked slowly. The moment she did something flashed behind her eyelids- an image.

A vision.

A huge cave, covered in DomZ matter, half filled with a mirror of dark water. In the middle of this solid ocean was an island with a single occupant.

The entity was huge, as tall as Jade's lighthouse. It was a human made of armour-grey stone, but it wasn't a statue. It showed no sign of being alive, yet its appearance implied without any perceivable reason that it was a living being.

It _felt_ alive.

Jade opened her eyes, and the vision faded. The sight that awaited her was the blazing core of the Soul Eater DomZ. Jade squinted, unable to tear her gaze away.

"_**Shauni."**_

The vision appeared again, before the girl's waking eyes.

The statue that wasn't a statue was concealed beneath a stone cowl. What little could be seen of its face was soulless and empty. It contrasted heavily against the DomZ influence that flooded the cave with its creeping presence, pulsing bones clutching the walls in greedy malice while the human sculpture remained still and expressionless. Four arms reached from the torso of the living monument, two held out to the side, two cupped before it. In the cupped hands was a ball of light. Jade found her attention drawn to the sight, more than an intangible image should've gauged her interest. It wasn't the yellow light of the sun which she feared she'd never see again, but neither was it the green light of the DomZ. This light was pure white.

The light began consuming Jade's thoughts, blinding memories and feelings. She let out a gasp and tried to look away, but she could no longer feel her body. She tried to tell herself that it was a hallucination with no meaning, but her conscious dissolved in the glare, and soon enough what little thought that was left to her could think of only one thing.

'_What is it?'_

The vision drowned her psyche, and Jade collapsed in a faint. She no longer sensed the Soul Eater that continued to examine her, nor the grim surroundings. Nothing entered her mind except the hypnotic vision generated by her proximity with the DomZ, and the echoes of the name 'Shauni'.

Deadly silence descended. Nothing disturbed the stillness except the gently writhing of DomZ flesh. It could have stayed that way indefinitely, were it not for a muffled cry from somewhere on the edge of the scene.

"Jade!"

Jade- her true name.

Jade groggily raised her head. As she did, there was a shout of "Hang on Jade; I'm comin'!"

The girl looked up to the source of the voice. She had the chance to acknowledge the limited view from the crater opening, before her attention was grabbed by a figure leaping from one of the lower lighthouse windows with an excitable cry that drowned out the smashing of glass.

Jade's Uncle Pey'j, an extremely short and portly evolved pig, came plummeting into the crater with all the brash inelegance that defined him. His loud and abrupt entrance banished the subtle tendrils of atmosphere created by the DomZ as he landed in the middle of the Soul Eater's extended spine. The creature howled and reared up, tossing the hog aside. The tentacle that held Jade segmented and retracted back into the ground, and the girl landed in the centre of the ring of claws with a burst of acute awareness for the real world.

"Free yerself, Jade!" Pey'j hollered as he regained his footing. He took something from where it was attached to the harness of his S.A.C and hurled it through the air.

"I'll create a diversion!"

Jade spotted the object spinning end over end toward her. She jumped up and reached out, catching it perfectly. As she expected, it was her Daï'jo.

Jade admired the device as it extended in the middle, becoming as long as she was tall. The pole itself was coloured with a pleasant bluish hue and as light as a feather, while the ends were weighted ovals with flecked gold leaf coatings, each one clasping a small, clear gemstone. The Daï'jo was a meditation tool that Jade was an adept at using both for mental exercise, and for combat.

While Pey'j charged at the Soul Eater with a small hammer, Jade turned her thoughts upon her prison of claws. Holding her prayer stick in her right hand, she pulled it back over the left shoulder to prepare to strike, and contacted her meditative centre.

The crystals on the staff lit up as single cell organisms breeding inside detected Jade's focused mind and replied. Psychically responsive bio-energy bled from the gems, crackling down the staff like pink tinged electricity till it coalesced at the point where Jade held the Daï'jo. The energy known by many names such as qi, life-force, soul essence or psycho-karma continued to grow stronger, the only limit to its strength being Jade's ability to channel it from her own mind.

After a few seconds the girl unleashed this build-up of power.

Organic lightning erupted from both her and the staff, knocking down the claws like they were toothpicks. The blast carried Jade a few feet into the air as electrical arcs jumped from her and into the floor at a safe distance. She set down again, her heart beating so hard it ached. Jade's body burned with effort, but she forced herself to move.

The DomZ had taken some sort of damage to its spine. It had now employed a ring of spikes to hold its head up off the floor and out of reach of Pey'j. The pig dashed his hammer along the bars until one of the arms on the DomZ's head came down, swiped the tool away into the darkness and hurled Pey'j to the floor. Jade darted towards her uncle, but he saw her coming and held up a trotter/hand.

"In the eye, Jade! That's his Achilles Heel!"

Jade froze in a moment of indecision- help her uncle, or stop their attacker?

The monstrous DomZ let rip with an energy beam from its eye, not unlike Jade's own psycho-karma attack. Pey'j jumped up and went sprinting through the cavern as the yellow ray powered after him, burning the earth to ash.

Jade ran at the Soul Eater, charging her Daï'jo as she moved. She skidded to a halt in front of the DomZ and fired another pulse of mental energy.

The creature screeched in outrage as the claws bracing it fell away and it collapsed to the rubble strewn earth, writhing as it tried to get up again. Jade attacked immediately but the ball at the centre of the DomZ mass was tougher and heavier than the purple crystals of the sarcophagus domzii. While the thing squealed with each impact, it did not die, and soon the circle of claws had risen again to hold the Soul Eater up out of reach of even Jade's athletic jumps as she tried to go after the eye.

Jade stepped back to prepare for another attack, but one of the DomZ's spindly arms flicked out and knocked her down. Her staff clattered to the ground as she landed on her back.

The Soul Eater tilted its head and fired is deadly energy ray. Jade rolled aside and came to her feet, dancing away as the beam chased after her. The beam took a moment to burn itself out, and when it had the girl made a dash for her staff.

The floor under Jade's feet ruptured as the DomZ's tentacle burst upwards and threw Jade to the earth again. When she landed she felt the tentacle clamp around her leg, and in the next moment the thing was dragging her towards the hole it came from. She reached down to try and pull her foot free, resisting the urge to cry out as DomZ apparently sought to bury her alive.

"Come on, Jade! Fight yer way out!" Pey'j shouted as he appeared at the hole where the tentacle was coming from and took hold of the alien limb in a huge bear hug.

Although the tentacle could no longer pull her, Jade found that she been dragged back into the vicinity of the Soul Eater's sinister aura.

Her thoughts were once again being invaded by those of the DomZ.

Jade's reality blurred as the silhouette of a four armed figured blocked the view of her DomZ adversary. She tried to push the multi limbed phantasm aside and ignore the mental violation, but the immense wall of thought thrown up by the DomZ coursed through her mind as an invasive sludge and weighted her thoughts down.

Jade convulsed as though to be sick. Whispered voices taunted her on the edge of her hearing.

"_**Shauni. Shauni."**_

Memories that didn't belong to her cropped up - memories of shadows and green lights and screaming, pleading faces encased in crystals. Hostile intentions battered at Jade's mentality, and she sank deep into the DomZ's mind, drowning in its oppressive presence.

She couldn't stand it anymore.

With all the willpower she could muster, Jade lashed out in her thoughts at the DomZ- not just the Soul Eater but at the whole DomZ race and the hurt and pain she seen them inflict, thoughts of her orphan charges lending weight to her rebellious impulse.

The psychic bond between Jade and the Soul Eater broke.

Maybe it was because the DomZ hadn't been expecting such potent defiance from a human being, but the shattering mental link left the DomZ in throws of agony. The high pitched voice of the Soul Eater peeled throughout the cavern in an awful tidal wave of noise that left Jade's ears ringing even as she struggled with her own trauma from the experience. The girl's mind returned to her body, ablaze with the shock of what she'd achieved.

The Soul Eater collapsed to the floor. Knowing that she might not have long, Jade turned her attention upon the Daï'jo. She reached out a hand to the abandoned weapon and began to meditate again, chanting a mantra under her breath.

The bond between a Daï'jo and its user was unique, given power by the channelling of psycho-karma. Jade was no fully-fledged psychic, but she was an accomplished practitioner of higher conscious meditation and knew that the art held sway over more than just how people think. The staff was several metres away and on the edge of the shadows, but as Jade turned her attention to the Daï'jo it ignited with psycho-karma, even at a distance. Jade fought to pour even more focus into the device. The staff burned brighter, shuddered with suppressed power, and then unexpectedly skittered across the ground and into Jade's outstretched hand.

Jade panted with the effort of the feat, proud of herself but aware that there was no time to lose.

The girl in green sat up and slammed her staff forward. The blunt head penetrated the mass of hard flesh chomping down on her foot. One flash of psycho-karma later, and the DomZ finally let go with a moan of pain. Jade flipped back onto her feet, and before another diversion could take place she charged the monster with her Daï'jo held high and humming with power. With a two handed swing she struck the DomZ as hard as she could across its huge, bulbous eye, spilling the psychic energy of her staff into the bright orb. The affect was instantaneous.

The DomZ's body was racked with spasms that defied the damage Pey'j had dealt to its back earlier. The creature lifted itself high into the air in an attempt to escape the throws of death that travelled from nerve ending to nerve ending within its harden flesh. The DomZ quaked, the colour of its body flowing into different shades of green and red in less time than it took for a heart to beat. The process of death went on until, at last, the root of the DomZ exploded, leading to a domino effect all the way up the elongated spine until only the head remained, still upturned in shock. The mass of other worldly flesh remained suspended in the air for a moment, propelled by the power of the residual DomZ light that ebbed away.

The Soul Eater's head fell and landed in the small depression that marked where it had been planted. The creature wailed, thrashing about, its legs wiggling pathetically.

Despite the air of evil and the utmost dread that came with the very name 'DomZ', Jade couldn't help feel splash of regret as she observed the suffering she'd inflicted on the alien.

Though only for a moment.

The Soul Eater stopped struggling and curled its legs up, the very picture of a wounded insect. Then the harshly shaped body burst with explosive force, leaving not a trace behind except for the green central orb, which began to pale as the taint of the DomZ bled from it. The last few fingers of dense flesh shrank away to nothing, and all that remained was a gleaming sky blue pearl the size of a football.


End file.
